The proposed research investigates effects of stimuli presented under conditions popularly identified as "subliminal." A major component of the completed research examined effects of subliminal self-help (SSH) audiotapes (of a type now marketed extensively) that are claimed to improve self-esteem and memory. This research demonstrated (in three double-blind field experiments) that SSH tapes have no effects of actual (subliminal) content, but do have label (placebo or expectancy) effects that are of at least short-term duration. The proposed research focuses on the visual subliminal domain, in which the project has established replicable, but as yet inadequately theoretically explained, subliminal semantic activation (SSA) effects. The proposed research uses methods developed in the completed work, with the aims of establishing theoretical interpretation, and adding to the body of empirical SSA data that can be used to evaluate the potential for visual media to produce socially significant subliminal influence effects.